MOYLE, Walter (1627-1701), of Bake, St Germans, Cornw.

Walter Moyle, a younger son of the important Cornish MP John Moyle II*, was born in March 1627, and reached maturity during the civil wars. He matriculated at Oxford in November 1650, at the relatively advanced age of 23, and four years later he was admitted to the Inner Temple, where his uncle, Attorney-general Edmund Prideaux I*, was treasurer.16Al. Ox.; I. Temple database. By this time his father’s political influence had begun to wane, and as his elder brother, John Moyle I, had been in retirement since Pride’s Purge, the way was clear for Walter to take advantage of the family’s electoral influence. In 1654 he was returned as one of the county members for Cornwall, but there is no evidence for his activity in the Commons. In 1656 he was a again returned for the county, but his political allegiances were by now suspect – probably as a result of his father’s open opposition to the protectorate – and he was one of the MPs denied a ‘certificate of approbation’ from the protectoral council, and excluded from the House.17CJ vii. 425b. It is not certain that Moyle gained re-admittance to Parliament later in the Parliament, but by June 1657 he was considered sufficiently trustworthy to be included in the assessment commission for Cornwall.18A. and O.

On 5 January 1659 Moyle was elected for the borough of Lostwithiel, gaining more votes than his fellow-MP John Clayton* or the failed candidate, Walter Vincent* (who eventually sat for Truro instead).19HMC Var. i. 336. Moyle was not the most dynamic of Members in this Parliament, although he did become involved in the debate concerning Rowland Thomas, who had been sent to Barbados, perhaps unlawfully, by the secretary of state, John Thurloe*. On 30 March Moyle stated that he had heard Thomas ‘own the petition’, thus allowing it to be examined in committee; and it was also said that Moyle had ‘delivered Thomas’s petition’ in the first place.20Burton’s Diary, iv. 307-8. Without more information, it is uncertain whether Moyle’s interest in this case was personal, or whether he intended to increase the pressure on the beleaguered secretary of state, perhaps working with the ‘crypto-royalist’ critics of the regime. Moyle’s only committee appointment came on the next day, when he was named to the committee to bring in a bill for allow representatives from the county and city of Durham to sit in Parliament despite the return to the old franchise.21CJ vii. 622b. The fall of the protectorate had little impact on Moyle’s career. In July 1659, he was appointed one of the militia commissioners in Cornwall, and a month later Richard Lobb* told Colonel Robert Bennett* that he thought Moyle one of the ‘faithful hands’ who should be entrusted with command of one of the local militia units.22FSL, X.d.483 (127). In December of that year Moyle was among the Presbyterian gentlemen who met at Truro to pledge their support of the Rump Parliament against the army, and in March 1660 he was regarded as one of the ‘chief members’ of militia commission for the county.23Coate, Cornw. 308, 311; A. and O.

Moyle was re-elected for Lostwithiel for the Convention in April 1660, and in the Commons he became known as a moderate Presbyterian. Among his local allies were the Morices and the Bullers. Moyle married a daughter of William Morice* of Werrington in 1663, and in the 1670s he stood as trustee for the estates of the younger Francis Buller, son of Francis Buller II*.24Antony House, Carew-Pole BS/14/9; BW/15/15. During the 1660s and 1670s he was active in the government of Cornwall, and served as sheriff in 1670-1, but he failed to secure a seat in the general election of 1679. Moyle was returned to Parliament as Member for St Germans in 1689, and died in September 1701.25HP Commons, 1660-90. In his will he left his ‘books, records and muniments’ to his son and heir, Walter†, with further instructions ‘to cause the pamphlets to be bound that are in my chamber’.26PROB11/468/234. Walter and his younger brother, Joseph†, were whigs who sat for Saltash in 1695-8 and 1705-8 respectively.27HP Commons 1690-1715.